


Heartbeat

by Centuryon



Category: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (Video Game)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, M/M, Underage Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-22
Updated: 2019-10-22
Packaged: 2020-12-28 12:49:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21136976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Centuryon/pseuds/Centuryon
Summary: There is a drumbeat in the darkness. No—a heartbeat. He does not know if it’s his own. He cannot feel his chest. He can only hear. He is a blood-soaked corpse, a heavy dead thing, and yet he hears it.





	Heartbeat

The general moves fast, his motions decisive and well-timed despite the wound Wolf has given him. That wound, in fact, is possibly the only thing keeping Wolf alive. His imprisonment in the well weakened him significantly—that much was clear in his battle with Genichiro—and now he has to contend with the loss of part of his body in addition to the loss of skill. Though its proportions suit him well, the weight of the prosthetic is slightly different from his flesh arm, and sudden movements still throw him off balance. He feels incomplete; his body is strange to him, as often a hindrance as an asset.

He slashes at the general’s unguarded side. The other man dances away, then returns, faster than Wolf had anticipated, with a low sweep. It catches him just enough to hurt—he folds forward, muscles already tensing in preparation to dodge—and then suddenly he cannot move at all. He sees a bright flash of movement before him he cannot seem to comprehend, and there is a strange sensation in his chest. His mouth is full of the taste of blood. 

His opponent pulls his sword free, and it is then that the pain hits. Wolf collapses, too weak to catch himself. Blood pours from the hole in his chest, covering the ground beneath him, and that heavy wetness seeping into his clothes is the only thing Wolf can sense through the mind-numbing pain. The pain and the weight consume him together, pull him into the earth, devour his very sense of self until they finally destroy themselves, and even his body feels nothing.

There is a drumbeat in the darkness. No—a heartbeat. He does not know if it’s his own. He cannot feel his chest. He can only hear. He is a blood-soaked corpse, a heavy dead thing, and yet he hears it.

_Loyal Wolf, take my blood and live again._

Kuro’s voice seems to come from everywhere, from inside Wolf’s body and from the darkness around him, which are inseparable. He sees a thousand images flash before him, dreamlike: Kuro in the moon-view tower, handing Wolf his sword; Kuro, now much younger, running through the forest at Hirata with Wolf watching over him; Kuro drowsily clinging to him as Wolf carries him to bed. These are memories, moments that Wolf knows were real, that he could have recalled in life—but others are unfamiliar, and some of them unsettling: Kuro wide-eyed and afraid, stumbling into Wolf’s arms; Kuro’s worried face looking down at him, with flames behind him and a terrible pain in Wolf’s body, a terrible sense of foreboding. That feeling echoes threateningly as Wolf becomes aware, briefly, of blood in his mouth and hard earth against his face, before it fades again and the visions overtake him—Kuro opens his mouth—

_Loyal Wolf…_

The scene changes again. More events unfold before him that he cannot recall ever experiencing, and yet they feel so vivid, so real, that he cannot help but wonder if he has only forgotten. He walks with Kuro, hand in hand, beneath a flowering sakura tree, his lord smiling up at him; Kuro sets a cup of tea before him, the steam rising up to the ceiling, and Wolf feels a more thorough contentment than he has ever felt before; Kuro is in his lap, kissing him, one hand on the back of Wolf’s neck and the other resting on his chest. Wolf feels warm, the softness of Kuro’s lips burned into his mind though he does not think he has ever truly felt such a thing, and the sound of the beating heart—Kuro’s? Or is it his own?—surrounds him and keeps him under, in the warm intimacy of his dream, or his dying vision, whatever it might be. His mind flashes again, and now Kuro is naked with Wolf kneeling behind him, his small body covered and enveloped by Wolf’s larger one, and Kuro whimpers and breathes his name as Wolf penetrates him with his cock. Wolf’s body is suffused with an overwhelming sensation, a feeling so impossibly intimate it frightens him: he is inside Kuro, and Kuro is inside him, too, in a way he can’t explain, their shared heartbeat echoing in his ears, and the warmth of Kuro’s breath as he turns to kiss Wolf travels through his mouth into his lungs, the heat spreading to his extremities until his body feels real again, a feeling he had not even realized was missing, and still spreading and expanding while the beating sound grows louder—

_…take my blood and live again._

He gasps. He feels his lungs expand, and his heart pounds in his chest, and his eyes open and his legs contract and push him off the ground. He is aware of his own blood flowing through his body, bringing life to his flesh, and is aware that in some way Kuro is in him and has brought him back. His lord’s voice is clear in his mind, and he swears he can still taste Kuro’s mouth, a mouth he has never truly kissed—has he?—but it does not matter; the memory, false or otherwise, is strong enough to push him onward. 

He thinks suddenly of a memory he knows is real, and recent. The letter that fell into his prison began with two words that broke him out of his stupor and returned him to his lord. _Kuro’s Wolf._ That is what he is. His feet stand firm upon the earth and Kuro is with him in spirit. Wolf will be with him in truth again.

The general has his back turned to Wolf, no doubt comfortable in the knowledge that he had been defeated. Wolf draws his sword and crouches, ready to spring, knowing already his blow will strike true. He feels balanced, strong, in a way he had not before. His heart beats in his chest because of Kuro. His lord’s blood runs in his veins. He feels whole again.


End file.
